by Rick Scobey

Created on: September 14, 2008

TO BE OR NOT TO BE
To be or not to be is the question. Let me see, where have I heard these words before? Oh yea! These words are implied in the category that I this article is about: to be rigorous or not to be rigorous or to nurture or not to nurture.

Here is what I think: if a student demonstrates a joy (affective domain) for learning in an academic setting and is self-disciplined, then nurturing him is most likely the best way to teach that student, if it is allowed by the district policy and is aligned with the No Child Left Behind Act. If the student can accomplish the goals and objectives in which he will be assessed by standardized testing, then to nurture is the thing to do.

On the other hand, if the student demonstrates a lack of joy (affective domain) from learning in an academic setting and lacks self-discipline, then a rigorous disciplinary action plan, along with an "appropriate academic recovery" plan, should be implemented immediately ASAP in order to prepare him to be nurtured. The academica part does not necessarily have to rigorous, but the disciplinaryy plan should.

I believe that a rigorous classroom mangement plan should be implemented by the teacher(s) ASAP in order for the student to become adapted to an appropriate learning environment. The elements of classroom mangement that are conducive to learning is attention, focus, and concentration on the learning and teaching process. THESE FACTORS ARE NOT AN OPTION: THEY ARE A MUST! Without these factors, the student can not perform to his full potential and will not be able to know what the joy of learning feels like.

Without appropriate classroom mangement procedures a student tends to pay more attention to everthing else rather than to what he is to learn in the classroom. How do I know this? I am a high school teacher and I was a student once. Some of my students remind me of me when I was in school. The hierachy of values and beliefs of some students are inverted: learning is almost at the bottom. They have a lot of "social echos" in their minds that take up their interest in learning more about what is going on out in the hallways and on the school campus, rather then paying attention to the topic of the day in the classroom.

What are effective classroom procedures? The gist of effective classroom procedures is to say what you mean as a teacher and mean what you say. In other words, you must enforce the classroom rules by following up with consequences. As a teacher, you can not have

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